“This was a nice trek into southwest Cloud County and into the wild corners of Mitchell and Ottawa Counties. I don’t know if those areas are especially wild and the roads less developed, or if it just seems that way because they are a little less familiar to me, but in either case, just that little excursion into my personal frontier made this ride seem a little extra special. I’ve ridden most of the roads within a 20-30 mile radius of my house pretty frequently, so if I’m going for a metric century, I’ve got a fair distance is neighborhood riding before I get somewhere new. I loathe to drive 25 miles in order to solo ride 60; it just seems silly.
My goal was to ride into the line of hills south of Simpson, so I headed that direction and cut back along the ridge line, passing the favorite spots of Bohemian Hall (an old Czech hangout) and the Zebulon Pike monument (on a high point with great 270° views – from there I can see the next line of hills to south, beckoning and taunting me…)…
I had three bottles, and needed all three, and fortunately, about 5 miles from home, met my brothers-in-law loading some cattle and was blessed with a refreshing Lite beer.”
-Josiah D.
